Mobile web use is exploding in Africa, according to Opera Softwares latest State of the Mobile Web report. Triple-digit growth rates are routine in the region, where page views in the top 12 countries in Africa increased by 182 per cent year-on-year, unique users increased by 124 per cent, and the amount of data transferred increased by 160 per cent.

Opera’s State of the Mobile Web report, published monthly, provides information on the top global trends affecting the mobile web. This months report includes a geographic spotlight on Africa.

In June 2010, Opera Mini had over 59.4m users, a 3.2 per cent decrease from May 2010, but an increase of 124.7 per cent since June 2009.  Opera says the slight decrease in key metrics can be traced to certain countries where it has experienced “some technical and political challenges”. It says these are about to be solved.

Opera Mini users viewed over 27.3bn pages in June 2010, 3.4 per cent down on May 2010, but 161.8 per cent up on June 2009. During June, Opera Mini users generated over 416m MB of data for operators worldwide, 4 per cent down on May, but 90 per cent up year-on-year. The company notes that data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90 per cent, so if the data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 3.8 Petabytes of data in June.

Looking at usage in Africa, the top 12 countries using Opera Mini in the region are S. Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Sudan, Libya, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Mozambique and Mauritius. Facebook, Google and YouTube all do well in Africa. Facebook is the top-ranked site in six of the 12 listed countries, and Google is ranked No.1 in the remaining six countries. Nokia remains the most popular handset brand in Africa, followed by Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and LG.

“The mobile web is growing quickly throughout Africa,” says Opera co-founder, Jon von Tetzchner. “The mobile web is critical in the region, where mobile phone penetration is substantially higher than PC penetration. The widespread availability of mobile phones means the mobile web can reach tens of millions more than the wired web. Im honored Opera Mini has a part to play, as the mobile web begins reshaping the economic, political and social development of the continent.”

You can access the full report here.